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Local Properties Keep Stars Bright with Night Sky-Friendly Lighting

October 2, 2025 • by Emily Howard

Village Fresh Greenhouse Grown, the Brewster County Courthouse and Terlingua Ranch Lodge are the latest to adopt lighting that benefits astronomers and skywatchers.

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Illustration of the Wolf 1130ABC triple system, composed of the red dwarf star Wolf 1130A, its close and compact white dwarf companion Wolf 1130B, and the distant brown dwarf tertiary Wolf 1130C. The three components of this system are shown scaled to their relative sizes. Image credit: Adam Burgasser, UCSD.

McDonald Observatory

A Cosmic Puzzle: Phosphine Found in One Brown Dwarf, Missing in Others

October 2, 2025 • by Emily Howard

On the right side, a telescope enclosure sitting on a mountaintop is open to the night sky. Text over the sky reads "Giant Magellan Telescope + Massachusetts Institute of Technology"

McDonald Observatory

UT Austin Welcomes MIT to Giant Magellan Telescope International Consortium

September 30, 2025 • by Staff Writer

The complicated structure at the centre of the Butterfly Nebula, NGC 6302. There is a bright source at the centre that is surrounded by greenish nebulosity and several looping lines in cream, orange and pink. One of these lines appears to form a ring oriented vertically and nearly edge-on around the bright source at the centre. Other lines trace out a figure eight shape. Moving outward from these complex lines and green nebulosity, there is a section of red light on either side of the object.

McDonald Observatory

Astronomers Investigate Complex Heart of a Cosmic Butterfly

August 28, 2025 • by Emily Howard